A streaming device may broadcast multimedia content, such as television signals, to electronic devices in a customer premises. The device may include a tuner to receive a signal, corresponding to a number of television channels, and to extract a second signal corresponding to a selected channel. The device may include a media processor to transcode the extracted signal to a second encoded format. The device may further authenticate a destination device as a destination device that is authorized to receive at least some of the television channels, and receive, from the destination device, channel selection information that identifies the selected channel. The device may further include a communication interface to transmit the signal, in the second encoded format, to the destination device.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection. Each claim is shown in both the original legal language and a plain English translation.
1. A device comprising: a tuner to: receive a signal corresponding to a plurality of television channels, and extract a second signal corresponding to a selected channel, in a first encoded format, from the plurality of television channels; a media processor to transcode the extracted second signal, in the first encoded format, to a second encoded format; a processor to: authenticate a portable destination device, that connects to the device, as a portable destination device that is authorized to receive at least some of the plurality of television channels, the authentication including authenticating the portable destination device based on a determination that the portable destination device is within a customer premises of a subscriber to the plurality of television channels, the determination that the portable destination device is within the customer premises of the subscriber including determining whether the portable destination device is in communication with a local wireless router that is associated with an account corresponding to the customer premises, and receive, from the portable destination device, channel selection information that identifies the selected channel; and a communication interface to: connect to the local wireless router; and transmit the second signal, in the second encoded format, to the portable destination device, via the local wireless router.
A device receives a TV signal with multiple channels and extracts a selected channel. It transcodes the extracted channel from one encoding format to another. It authenticates a portable device connecting to it by verifying the device is within the subscriber's customer premises. This authentication involves checking if the portable device is connected to the local WiFi router associated with the subscriber's account. The device receives channel selection info from the portable device and then transmits the transcoded signal of the selected channel to the portable device via the local WiFi router.
2. The device of claim 1 , where the second signal includes a packetized video stream that is transmitted to the local wireless router.
The device, as described in the previous claim about a device that receives and transcodes TV channels for portable devices, sends the transcoded signal to the local WiFi router as a packetized video stream. This means the video is broken into small packets for transmission over the network.
3. The device of claim 1 , where the second signal includes a HLS (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Live Streaming) stream.
The device, as described in the initial claim about streaming TV content to portable devices within a home network, transmits the transcoded signal as a Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Live Streaming (HLS) stream. HLS is a specific protocol for adaptive streaming of video over HTTP, often used for delivering content to mobile devices.
4. The device of claim 1 , where the tuner includes: a plurality of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) tuners to simultaneously extract a plurality of second signals corresponding to a plurality of selected channels.
The device, as described in the initial claim, utilizes multiple Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) tuners. These tuners allow the device to simultaneously extract multiple channels from the incoming TV signal. This enables the device to handle multiple channel requests concurrently.
5. The device of claim 1 , further comprising: a cable card to perform decryption of the second signal.
The device, as described in claim 1, further includes a cable card for decrypting the extracted television channel signal. This allows the device to access encrypted cable channels that require decryption for viewing.
6. The device of claim 1 , where the tuner includes: a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) tuner to perform command and control signaling with a content provider of the plurality of television channels.
The device, as described in the initial claim, utilizes a Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) tuner. This tuner is specifically used for command and control signaling with the content provider. This enables the device to communicate back to the cable provider for channel authorization or other interactive services.
7. The device of claim 1 , where the first encoded format includes a MPEG-4 encoded signal and the second encoded format includes a MPEG-2 encoded signal.
In the device described in the initial claim, the original TV signal is encoded using MPEG-4 and the transcoded signal that is sent to the portable device uses MPEG-2. This means the device converts from MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 format.
8. The device of claim 7 , where the device provides the MPEG-2 encoded signal to a set-top box (STB).
Building on the previous claim about encoding formats, the MPEG-2 encoded signal from the device is provided to a set-top box (STB). This suggests the device can output the transcoded MPEG-2 signal to a traditional set-top box for viewing on a regular TV.
9. The device of claim 1 , where the received signal conforms to Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MOCA) standards.
The received TV signal, as processed by the device described in the initial claim, conforms to Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) standards. This indicates the device is designed to work within a MoCA network.
10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the local wireless router implements an IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area network.
The local WiFi router, used by the device from claim 1, implements an IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area network. This means the WiFi uses standard 802.11 protocols like 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax.
11. A method comprising: receiving, by a device, a television signal, including a plurality of television channels, at a first interface of the device; extracting, by the device, a selected television channel, of the plurality of television channels, where the selection of the television channel is received from a mobile personal access device that is authenticated based on a determination that the mobile personal access device is within a customer premises of a subscriber to the plurality of television channels, the determination that the mobile personal access device is within the customer premises of the subscriber including determining whether the mobile personal access device is in communication with a local wireless router that is associated with an account corresponding to the customer premises; encoding, by the device, the extracted television channel into a format different than a format in which the selected television channel is received by the device; and transmitting, by the device and through a second interface of the device, and via the local wireless router, the encoded television channel to the mobile personal access device.
A device receives a TV signal with multiple channels. It extracts a selected channel, where the channel selection comes from a mobile device. The mobile device is authenticated by verifying it's within the subscriber's home. This authentication involves checking if the mobile device is connected to the local WiFi router associated with the subscriber's account. The device encodes the extracted channel into a different format than the original. The encoded channel is then transmitted to the mobile device via the local WiFi router.
12. The method of claim 11 , where transmitting the encoded television channel includes: transmitting the encoded television channel as a HLS (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Live Streaming) stream.
The method described in the previous claim regarding TV signal processing and transmission, involves transmitting the encoded television channel to the mobile device as a Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Live Streaming (HLS) stream. This is a specific method of video streaming.
13. The method of claim 11 , where the encoded television channel includes a packetized video stream that is transmitted, through the second interface, to a local wireless router.
In the method of streaming TV content to mobile devices, described earlier, transmitting the encoded channel involves creating a packetized video stream which is then transmitted to the local WiFi router. This describes how the encoded video is formatted for network transmission.
14. The method of claim 11 , where extracting the selected television channel includes extracting the channel using a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) tuner.
In the method of claim 11, regarding processing television signals, extracting the selected TV channel involves using a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) tuner. This specifies the type of tuner used for channel extraction.
15. The method of claim 11 , where the extracted television channel includes a MPEG-4 encoded signal and the encoded television channel includes a MPEG-2 encoded signal.
In the method described in claim 11, concerning TV signal processing and transmission, the original extracted channel is in MPEG-4 format and the encoded channel transmitted to the mobile device is in MPEG-2 format.
16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the local wireless router implements an IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area network.
The method of streaming TV content described earlier utilizes a local wireless router that implements an IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area network. This specifies the type of WiFi network used.
17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing processor-executable instructions for execution by one or more processors, the processor-executable instructions to: receive a television signal, including a plurality of television channels, at a first interface of the device; extract a selected television channel, of the plurality of television channels, where the selection of the television channel is received from a mobile personal access device that is authenticated based on a determination that the mobile personal access device is within a customer premises of a subscriber to the plurality of television channels, the determination that the mobile personal access device is within the customer premises of the subscriber including determining whether the mobile personal access device is in communication with a local wireless router that is associated with an account corresponding to the customer premises; encode the extracted television channel into a format different than a format in which the selected television channel is received by the device; and transmit, through a second interface of the device, and via the local wireless router, the encoded television channel to the mobile personal access device.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium contains instructions that, when executed, cause a device to: receive a TV signal with multiple channels; extract a selected channel based on a request from a mobile device; authenticate the mobile device by verifying it is within the subscriber's home network using the local WiFi router; encode the extracted channel into a different format; and transmit the encoded channel to the mobile device via the local WiFi router.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , where the encoded television channel includes a packetized video stream that is transmitted, through the second interface, to a local wireless router.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium described above, which handles TV signal processing, encodes the television channel as a packetized video stream and sends it through the second interface to the local wireless router.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , where extracting the selected television channel includes extracting the channel using a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) tuner.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium described earlier regarding TV processing and streaming, extracts the selected channel using a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) tuner. This identifies the specific type of tuner used.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , where the extracted television channel includes a MPEG-4 encoded signal and the encoded television channel includes a MPEG-2 encoded signal.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium described above processes television signals, where the extracted channel is initially in MPEG-4 format, and the encoded channel transmitted to the mobile device is in MPEG-2 format.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
September 12, 2011
August 15, 2017
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